Integration of soil solarization, corm treatment and soil amendment for the management of Fusarium wilt of gladiolus

摘要

Wilt of gladiolus caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. gladioli is serious disease causing huge losses in flower yield. Studies were conducted to develop an integrated approach for the management of the wilt by integrating different approaches like cormtreatment, soil amendments and soil solarization. Among 6 fungicides evaluated against the wilt pathogen under in vitro conditions, Quintal and Saaf were found most effective. Among three neem formulations, Neemazal and Eucalyptus oil were also found effective with 100 % inhibition in the mycelial growth at 5 % concentration. Out of five indigenous species of Trichoderma evaluated,T. viride was found most effective with 65 % inhibition in the mycelial growth. Effect of solar heat was also observed on propagules of the wilt pathogen in soil. Soil solarization for 40 days in plots amended with cabbage leaf residues reduced the population of viable propagules of the wilt pathogen by 97.8 per cent at 5 cm soil depth in comparison with unsolarized and unamended plots. Among all the treatments, corm dip in Neemazal and soil amendment with neem cake was found most effective with 96.9-122.6,93.0-154.2,47.2 - 81.6 per cent increase in shoot length, spike length, size of the corm, respectively.This treatment also resulted in 317.1- 433.3 per cent increase in the number of the cormels and also took 25.5-27.6 per cent less days to flowering.